The technology of the present disclosure relates to an optical deflector and an optical scanning device including the same.
Conventionally, there has been known a resonance type optical deflector including a vibration mirror part, a torsion bar part that supports the vibration mirror part, and a driving part that drives the vibration mirror part. In this type of optical deflector, the vibration mirror part and the torsion bar part are unitized and are supported by a support member. In this optical deflector, when the vibration mirror part vibrates, the behavior (amplitude) of the vibration mirror part may be unstable due to a vortex generated around the vibration mirror part. In order to solve such a problem, there has been proposed a technology in which a solid part is arranged adjacent to an end portion of the vibration mirror part, so that the generation of the aforementioned vortex is suppressed.
A driving scheme of the aforementioned vibration mirror part includes an electromagnetic driving scheme, and a piezoelectric driving scheme using a piezoelectric element. In an optical deflector employing the piezoelectric driving scheme, a vibration mirror part, a torsion bar part, and a piezoelectric element (a driving part) are unitized to configure a mirror unit.